Another individual did a more thorough analysis of what the Epic launcher is actual logging and scraping. While the fact that it goes out and scans your PC for steam data and stores it locally (you know just in case you want to send it to them) is scary as fuck it was also somewhat overstated what data was being logged and scraped. I still think this launcher is utter trash, and that Origin launched in a much better state. I also think they have no business locally storing your steam data unless you specifically push the button to import that data.
I suspect that steam dislikes the idea of other companies (especially Epic) scraping this info and may consider hashing/encrypting some of this data in future updates. I'd fully support them doing that, even if it makes exporting friends lists and other data more difficult or even impossible.

I suspect this isn't the last we'll hear of the epic game store problems or of various exclusivity deals (Borderlands 3 is a 6 month exclusive) but I still think Epic's current business strategy is ugly from a consumer's point of view.

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Currently the "founder's edition" is $129 and includes a chromecast ultra, a controller and 3 months of stadia pro.

Stadia pro is $10/month and includes some "free" games and unlocks higher quality streaming. The "base" is free and is limited to 1080p/60fps but only for games you've already purchased.

This isn't quite as terrible as I imagined but it's still not a great value, you need to purchase games (which I imagine won't have the generous sales/discounts that other platforms offer) and you probably need to purchase their subscription to make sure you're not getting gimped on streaming quality. This is basically a console without the console - I'm sure it will appeal to some people but I'm curious as to how competitive it will be with the upcoming consoles that are expected to be announced in another week or so.

White bar is posture/block bar that doesn't deplete when perfect parrying an attack/blaster shot - enemies also have this bar and depleting it let's you use a finisher

Blue bar is force meter, but it also seems to be used for heavy attacks, the rate it regens and how large it is seems a bit high during the video - it might be this bar changes on higher difficulties

When enemies glow red it's an unblockable attack

There's a perfect dodge as well, which provides another opportunity for a finisher or big attack

Honestly when sekiro came out I saw several comments talking about how perfect the system is for a star wars / jedi knight game and this seems to be a solid implementation of it.
The few problems I have is that they're pushing hard to stick to a Teen rating which means you see storm troopers getting sliced up by a lightsaber and they just get burn marks instead of getting full blown cut in half. I understand why they don't want to push this envelope (the mouse has control) but after playing sekiro and seeing a more over the top blood fountain style of gore, this feels super out of place - the attacks and finishing moves in particular seem to lack the weight/violence that I feel should be there.

I feel like they took ideas from the others. I feel like I see bits of Origin and bits of Battle.net in that. Not sure if I like it though. I could understand that they would want to direct people to less popular features but I hope they kept the small mode.

9 hours ago, Malaphax said:

Point and click adventure game and a card game and role based combat combined? I'm not interested in this game but I feel like this a unique and new idea. Curious to see if it does well.

7 hours ago, Malaphax said:

Again kind of the same thing. There are like 15 main characters? Each with their own story? I'm not interested in this game but I feel like this a unique and new idea. Curious to see if it does well.

51 minutes ago, Malaphax said:

*sigh* The first game has been on my backlog since forever because of the many positive reviews I have seen but I've never started it. I probably won't. I guess if this one is good I'll just get this and skip #1.

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Volvo new interface stuff. Yea I agree there's definitely some origin and battlenet in there and that's fine. I think the issue I see some developers run into is they ignore the market leader or major competitors. The news about Riot Games making a league of legends version of autochess was met with many positive responses of "thank you for seeing something popular and recognizing you can do something similar." On the flipside there's a really long kotaku article about how the EA developers working on anthem were not even allowed to talk about destiny because "hurr durr that's competition and we need to reinvent the wheel."

Griftlands actually changed heavily from when it was initially announced as a more traditional turn based rpg with overworld exploration elements. I'm actually not at all interesting the card combat, the big name in that space (for pve) is probably slay the spire, followed by gwent thronebreaker.

Watchdogs 1 had problems with the protagonist being genuinely hated by most players. Watchdogs 2 had issues where half the player base bought in and the other half found the protagonist and his allies super annoying. This time around they're like "no protagonist, please just play whatever you want." It has elements of "driver" which allowed you to swap between cars at will, but this is a little more interesting with the recruiting and different specializations. I'm very curious because PCgamer has this article talking about how this is one of the most impressive demos they've played in years: https://www.pcgamer.com/watch-dogs-legion-is-the-most-impressive-e3-demo-ive-played-in-years/

Bloodlines has always been a cult classic that I'd be semi-interested in trying but the age of the game it kinda turns me off. I'm interested if they can pull off a sequel with so much time between the first (the lead writer is working on it) it could be the next deus ex if it lives up to the hype.

My hot take on the conferences:

EA - They basically showed nothing new except the star wars coverage, they really should have skipped this year

Microsoft/Xbox - semi-boring but the most focused, very little bullshit just lots of trailers.

Bethesda - Straight up shitshow, please don't put devs and plants in your audience it's way to obvious when they're cheering for "human NPCs in fallout 76" or fallout 76 battle royale... or anything fallout 76 for that matter. Honestly should have just skipped and had id do their thing at quakecon later in the year.

Ubisoft - Solid conference. I'm still impressed by the amount of support they provide for their already released games. The few new games they demoed look good. Watchdogs might take best in show.

Square Enix - Big focus on final fantasy and JRPGs, while I'm not particularly interested at least final fantasy 7 remake looks like it's coming along very well. The avengers game feels like a knockoff because it's not the same actors as the MCU, that's going to be a tough sell.

Sony/Playstation - Oh wait they didn't show up this year lol

Honestly this year feels really weird, it's a year before both new consoles get officially launched. Most of the games I saw that had release dates were slated for Q1'2020 which is either going to be super crowded or some of these games will push release dates into summer 2020 or even later. I think this is starting to signal the end of e3 as a major event and each company is going to eventually have their own big conferences sort of how big tech companies forgo major announcements at computex, CES, etc. and instead opt for their own conferences where they can dominate a news cycle.